Ellen Macarthur Trust

5 Days to go....

Saturday 5th December 2009
 
Wow, a hectic few days. If you've read recent blogs and been following Twitter, you would not have failed to follow my anxious wait for the satellite communications equipment which have been so generously loaned by STRATOS in north America and was due for delivery by December 1st. The anxiety reached stressful levels for all concerned on Thursday 3rd when we learned that not only were the two parcels on completely different Canary islands (one on Gran Canaria and one in Tenerife - we are in Lanzarote), but delivery would be not be until after the 4 day public holiday, next Wednesday 9th. The local delivery company told me on the telephone  "it is impossible to have your items tomorrow" and hung up the phone on me.  Apart from the fact we have booked a senior BBC guy arriving today, Saturday 5th, to fit the equipment, we are scheduled to set sail on Thursday the 10th which would have left no time for installation and no-one to install it anyway.  Anyhow, buttons were pushed, contacts spoke to contacts, and in one of the most amazing examples of management taking control of the situation which involved various Presidents, Vice Presidents and MD's, I received written confirmation from the Head of Operations from FEDEX on Thursday afternoon to say that the parcels would arrive the following day.  I can not begin to imagine the complexities involved, but he was good to his word and, by mid-day yesterday, Friday 4th, heaven and earth had been moved and Susana duly collected both boxes from Arricife airport yesterday lunchtime, they were on the boat here in the marina by 2.00pm.  I was emotional to see them arrive after all of the heartache but it could have been the eye-watering 780 euro "customs charge" which was levied just to receive the item as a "yacht in transit" - who says Pirates are only found off the coat of Yemen?.
 
Me and the satellite dome whilst writing my Blog
 
Can I just publicy offer a huge "thank you" to FEDEX - their commitmemt reminded me of that wonderful FEDEX advert with Tom Hanks.  CLICK HERE to watch it again.  Thank you to everyone involved (more than a dozen of you that I was aware of, there were no doubt more) and a particular thanks to Suzette who works for FEDEX in Memphis who telephoned me from her home, at breakfast time on Friday, to keep me updated - FEDEX should be proud to have you working for them.
 
So, what does all this mean?  Well, it means every one of you who are reading this now, everyone of you who will track our progress on the OC Tracker across the Atlantic, everyone of you who read Susana's blog and my blog and who will see us on TV, read about us in the papers and hear us on the radio, will now be able to do so - the equipment really is that important, without it, our only communications is an iridium telephone which costs £3 a minute to call (ouch..!!!) and would leave us virtually cut-off from you all.
 
Anyway, that's enough whinging, sorry about that...!!  No one wants to read about personal gripes, do they?  Well, the islands are now officially on a 4 day holiday.  Julian arrived safely and is staying on board ID.  His presence is invaluable as it means we've been able to crack on with some important jobs.  For example, the genoa, the big triangular white "saily" thing at the front of the boat which we will be using most on the trip, had been at the sail menders having a rip repaired. It was delivered back to ID the day Susana & I arrived last week but I needed to wait for Julian before hoisting it which we did this morning - only to find the rip is still there, exactly as it was before going to the sail menders - I'm beginning to wonder if all these problems are of my making...!!  Either that or we have a Jonah on board.
 
Amongst other jobs, I've now figured out how to access the all-important weather data and we've now started the daily weather routing assessments (pointless doing anything more than a week in advance).  So far, the weather is looking pretty good for next week with a favourable northerly wind of 15-20 knots pushing us southwards to the Cape Verde islands - it's going to be wonderful.  Susana had some brief dinghy training with Julian yesterday.  I was having a snooze on the foredeck and was woken by squeals of (nervous, slightly manic) laughter as she buzzed around the harbour holding the outboard engine for dear life, dodging boats and seagulls - Julian had that "I'm terrified but not going to show it look" on his face.
 
Timothy gone to see the Barbarians play NZ at Twickenham today with Elaine, lets hope the BaBa's do better than England 2 weeks ago - we speak daily on Skype which is a great way to keep in touch but I'm looking forward to seeing them when they arrive next Tuesday.